An Earthly Child (audio story)
An Earthly Child was the seventh Doctor Who bonus story released by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Marc Platt and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Campbell.
It introduced the great-grandson of the Doctor, Alex Campbell. It was set on Earth still struggling with the aftermath of the Dalek occupation that the First Doctor had helped put an end to in the television story The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This is the beginning of the arc about adventures of Susan and Alex with the Eighth Doctor, which continues in Relative Dimensions (with Quinnis serving as a prequel of sorts), Lucie Miller and To the Death.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Thirty years on from the Daleks' invasion of Earth, the scars still haven't healed. The survivors inhabit a world thrown back two hundred years, a world of crop shortages and civil unrest. A world where the brightest and best of its young people are drawn to the xenophobic Earth United group.
A world sliding into a new Dark Age, believes Susan Campbell, widow of one of the heroes of the Occupation. A world in need of alien intervention. A world in need of hope.
But as Susan takes drastic action to secure the planet's future, she's oblivious to the fact that her student son, Alex, ensnared by Earth United, is in need of alien intervention too. Or so Alex's great-grandfather thinks.
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
to be added
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Susan Campbell - Carole Ann Ford
- Alex Campbell - Jake McGann
- Holly Barrett - Sheryl Gannaway
- Marion Fleming/Hope - Leslie Ash
- Faisal Jensen/Reporter - Matt Addis
- Duncan - Ian Hallard
- President of the Earth Council/Policeman/Air Control/Helicopter Pilot/Reporter - Ian Brooker
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Slythers are now the stuff of fairy tales to the youth of Earth.
- The Moonbase was cut off by the Daleks during the invasion.
- Earth is ruled by an Earth Council led by a President.
- The Guldreasi use a conceptual generator.
- After the invasion, there were public burnings of Dalek technology.
- Susan and the Doctor fly on board the presidential helicopter.
- Susan indicates that it is 30 years since the Dalek occupation of Earth began, and a journalist says it's 20 years since it ended.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This was a special release given away to Big Finish subscribers who had the audio story Plague of the Daleks as part of their subscription.
- This release was made available to non-subscribers in December 2010.
- The title of this story is wordplay based off An Unearthly Child, the first Doctor Who story and the first to feature Susan Foreman.
- This story was recorded at The Moat Studios.
- Despite being released as a "bonus" episode, this was actually essential to the overarching plot of the Eighth Doctor audio series. This is in contrast to the other two "bonus releases" from this Doctor's run, AUDIO: Living Legend and AUDIO: The Four Doctors, which were entirely standalone stories.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Earth is still in ruins some twenty years after the end of the decade long Dalek occupation. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- Susan remembers her last encounter with the Doctor in the Death Zone on Gallifrey and comments that he was in his fifth incarnation at the time. (TV: The Five Doctors)
- Susan's husband, David Campbell, died several years earlier. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
- The Doctor mentions that he and Susan met Genghis Khan during his first incarnation. (PROSE: Time and Relative)
- The Doctor is surprised at Alex's existence, asking Susan how she got around Gallifreyan infertility. (PROSE: Gallifrey - Notes on the Planet's Background, et al.)
- The Doctor expresses a familiarity with conceptual generator technology, (AUDIO: Auld Mortality) saying that he's been in spaces made of imagination before. (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux, PROSE: Lungbarrow, TV: The Mind Robber, et al.)
- The Doctor explains to his great-grandson that he is from Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
- Susan has two hearts as a Gallifreyan. (TV: Spearhead from Space)
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official An Earthly Child page at bigfinish.com
- An Earthly Child at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for An Earthly Child at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
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